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Unit 9 Dalit Movements in India*

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Unit 9 Dalit Movements in India* Resistance, Mobilisation and Change UNIT 9 DALIT MOVEMENTS IN INDIA* Structure 9.0 Objectives 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Who is a Dalit ? 9.3 Dalit Mobilization/Dalit Consciousness 9.4 Dalit Movement in Pre-Independence India 9.4.1 Bhakti Movement 9.4.2 Neo-Vedantik Movements 9.4.3 Sanskritization Movement 9.4.4 Gandhiji’s Contribution to Dalit Movement 9.4.5 Ambedkar’s Contribution to Dalit Movement 9.5 Dalit Literary Movement 9.6 Post-Independence Dalit Movements 9.6.1 B.R. Ambedkar and Buddhist Dalit Movement 9.6.2 Dalit Panthers 9.6.3 Contribution of KanshiRam 9.6.4 Mayawati’s Contribution to Dalit Movement 9.7 Dalit Women’s Movement 9.8 Let Us Sum Up 9.9 References 9.10 Specimen Answers To Check Your Progress 9.0 OBJECTIVES After reading this unit, you will be able to: Understand the meaning of 'dalit' in India; To identify the issues/problems involved in the dalit movement; To know phases through which the dalit movement has passed; and Analyze the role of dalits and their organisations in the electoral politics 9.1 INTRODUCTION The Dalit movement began as a protest movement to bring socio-political transformation in the status of dalits in India. Dalits have been ruthlessly exploited and inhumanly subjugated by the upper castes for centuries. They have been isolated, fragmented and oppressed by the hegemony of Brahmin culture. The new polity, the post modern administrative framework, the rational judicial system, the current forms of land tenure and taxation, the new patterns of trade, the liberal education system, and the network of communications emphasized the spirit of liberty, equality and social justice for Dalits. The Dalit movement asserts rights and privileges to the Dalits. Ruman Sutradhar (2014) writes that the Dalit 128 *Contributed by Manas Nanda Movement is a social revolution aimed for social change, replacing the age old Dalit Movements in India hierarchical Indian society, and is based on the democratic ideals of liberty, equality and social justice. He also explains that the socio-cultural exclusion, economic deprivation and political exploitation of centuries made the Dalits break out of such kinds of age-old prejudices. Hence, they began to protest with the help of literature, or forming organizations like the Dalit Panthers, and this protest movement came to be recognized as the Dalit Movement. The post modern researchers, social scientists and academia have developed their interest to study the dalit movement as it is one of the important social movements in India. Different dalit leaders through their organization and political parties have mobilized and motivated the dalit mass to achieve the overall objectives of creating an inclusive society. Due to stronger mobilization by the Bahujan Samaj Party, the dalits could participate in the democratic electoral process in the country and create a separate identity for themselves. The dalit leaders unleashed the movement for maintaining or increasing reservations in political offices, government jobs and welfare programmes. It is called the new political movements of dalits. Dalit movement brought a transformation in the caste structure of Indian society and emphasized the fight for self dignity. The present reservation system is the outcome of dalit movement. 9.2 WHO IS A DALIT ? Dalits have different names in different parts of our country. They are called Holaya, Panchama, Chandala, Samagara, Chammar, Adikarnataka, and Adidravida etc.The word “Dalit” is derived from the Sanskrit word Dal, means”ground”, “suppressed”, “crushed”, or “broken to pieces”. It was first used by Jyotiba Phule, the founder of the Satya Shodak Samaj, a non-Brahmin movement in Maharashtra. He used the term to refer to the outcastes and untouchables as the victims of the caste-based social division of the Indian society in the nineteenth century. Victor Premasagar writes that the term expresses the Dalits’ “weakness, poverty and humiliation at the hands of the upper castes in the Indian society.”The term Dalit has become a political identity, similar to the way African Americans in the United States moved away from the use of the term “Negro”, to the use of “Black” or “African-American.” Dalits today use the term “Dalit” as they believe the term is more than being broken and is in fact an identity born of struggle and assertion. The word dalit is a degraded term which was replaced by the British rulers who named it as depressed class in 1919. Gandhij lovingly called them Harijan. The Brtitish administration defined them as Scheduled castes in 1935. Again the term Dalit was popularized by the Dalit Panther Movement of Maharashtra in 1970. In Varna Vyavastha, untouchables are placed as Panchama Varna. They occupy the lowest position in Indian society. They are the members of the menial caste and they are considered as impure and polluted and they have been regularly facing discrimination and violence which prevents them from enjoying the basic human rights and dignity promised to all citizens of India. They were denied access to roads, temples, schools, etc. to avoid “pollution” of other castes. They are forced to accept polluting occupations like disposing dead bodies, working with leather, cleaning toilets and sewage, etc. 129 Resistance, Mobilisation and The total percentage of Dalits is 16.6 percent in India. They are highly Change concentrated in states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and Maharastra. Dalits are mainly poor peasants, share-croppers and agricultural labourers in the rural economy. In the urban economy they basically form the bulk of the labouring population. Sutrdhar (2014) writes that Dalits began their movement against the exploitation by Brahmans, and that they have not succeeded even now. There are varied reasons why the movement could not be successful and one of the most important is that Brahmanism is deep rooted in the social structure of India .The Arya-Brahmins, the originators of the Vedas have actually institutionalized discrimination through the institution of caste. The majority are accepting caste system because the dominant ideology is inflicted in the people's minds by the process of hegemony. Brahmanism, in order to continue discrimination has made use of Gramscian hegemony‘through social institutions like schools, and temples, to maintain their hegemonic status. The Brahmins have very systematically deprived the Dalits of their own land and resources. The dominant Brahmanical ideology of caste is being resisted by a small group that took the shape of the Dalit Movement. A few educated Dalits organized the majority to begin the movement. As Gail Omvedt (1976) perceptibly observes, the autonomous Dalit movement had to engage with three forces in colonial society: 1) It developed in opposition to the socially and culturally pervasive and historically deep-rooted hegemony of Brahminical Hinduism. 2) It had to contend with the hegemony of the nationalist movement, which under the leadership of the Congress, strove to take over the agendas of several subaltern movements while restraining their democratic and egalitarian potential. 3) It had to face a difficult relationship with the communist movement. 9.3 DALIT MOBILISATION/DALIT CONSCIOUSNESS Mobilization’ means the process of preparing the actors for collective action. Collective action can simply be defined as people acting together in pursuit of interests they share, for example, gathering to demonstrate in support of their cause. Neil Smelser (1962) in his Theory of Collective Behaviour and Charles Tilly in his book From Mobilization to Revolution (1978) included mobilization as one important component of collective action. Collective behaviour begins when mobilization for action takes place. Ghurye in ‘Caste and Race in India’ (1969) has explained the type of discriminations associated with untouchables in traditional Indian society which includes banning of women of untouchable caste from covering the upper part of their body, wearing gold ornaments having sexual proximity beyond the caste and the men from wearing dhoti below their knees, using public facilities and going for occupations beyond their caste, prescriptions. Untouchables at large were supposed to carry a thorny branch of a tree to remove their footsteps from 130 the road; they were supposed to hang an earthen pot around their neck to spit in, Dalit Movements in India which may otherwise fall on the ground making higher castes impure. S.C Dube (1958) advocates that for the emergence of class consciousness, ideology of dalit becomes essential. He advocates that Dalit consciousness in contemporary India is the manifestation of Dalit’s search for modernization whereas Dalit consciousness in traditional India was a challenge to orthodox Brahmanism and Hindu values. Dalit mobilization in case of India should be studied from time perspective” indicating and explaining how various kinds of ideology have supported Dalit mobilization in India. During 1920s -1950s Dalit mobilization was greatly concerned about forcible entry into Hindu temples, burning copies of the Manusmriti, abandoning the services of indigenous priests governed by brahmanic values, production and the circulation of caste literatures etc, but in contemporary India, Dalit identity is more a matter of search for rights, justice and equality rather than just being concerned with rebellion against Hinduism. Therefore different stages of Dalit consciousness are driven by different ideologies and interests and
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